


Fallout

by Desdimonda



Series: Broken Steps on the Broken Isles - Drabbles and vignettes about Maiev, Illidan and their relationship beneath the shadow of the Legion's invasion on Azeroth and beyond. [16]
Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft - Various Authors
Genre: Argus is in the sky, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Post Tomb of Sargeras
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 03:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11592291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desdimonda/pseuds/Desdimonda
Summary: Maiev can't sleep. All she can see is that thing in the sky, so she punches a tree until she bleeds.





	Fallout

Maiev hit the tree with her fist, bound in strips of cloth and leather, tattered, already stained with blood, weeping from her broken skin. She hit it again. Again.  _Again._ The sound of her fist against wood, satisfying. The pain, even more. 

It was night. But she couldn’t remember when the sun had set. Nor what day it was. She didn’t want to look up at the sky anymore. For all she could see, was  _that_. The looming shadow; the seat of the Legion; the fallen world of Argus. It had been both whispered of in fear and spoken of in love - and memory. 

Like her home had once. And then it had been ripped apart. Because of the Legion. Always, because of the Legion.

Maiev hit the tree. Hard. But the force of her anger made her hand slip, her bloodied knuckles dragging against the rough bark, and she stumbled forward, catching herself before she hit the tree, face first, and swore.

“Get some sleep, Maiev,” said Illidan, the soft click of his hooves on the stone, rhythmic.

“I’ll sleep when they - or I - are dead,” she said, rebinding the cloth around her hand, silently cursing her shaking fingers.

“Then it’ll be you first, if you don’t-”

Maiev turned, sharply, pushing away from the tree. “Shut up! Will you just -  _shut up_ ,” she said, breaching the distance between them, her head tilted back, wisps of white hair settling, catching on her lips.

Illidan held steady, his wings folding gently, slowly, against his back, his head bowed. 

“Before you rip another hole in the sky and bring Sargeras himself to our feet,” she said before beginning to turn away.

But Illidan reached out, slowly. He didn’t grab her; he didn’t hold her back. A hand, rested on her shoulder, fingers splayed, the tips of claws brushing against her skin. 

The motion surprised her. It made her pause. A breath caught in Maiev’s throat, stalling her next step, her next word. She clenched her fists - tight - eyes staring ahead, the glow of Argus at the edge of her vision - like always.

They stood like that, for a moment - a breath - longer than she wanted.

“ _What?_ ” she said, at last, her voice low.

“What do you think I could have done?” said Illidan, trailing his hand down her arm, slowly, fingers feeling the curvature of her muscles; the warmth of her; the damp, sheen of sweat; the beat of her heart, so frantic, he could almost hear it beneath his touch. “Left us there - myself, Velen, Khadgar, our forces - to fall with the Deceiver?” 

“There’s always another way,” she said, lifting her head to stare up at Argus, at the twisting, gnarled fel that had near ripped the planet apart. 

“You weren’t there,” he said, gently, his fingers carefully prying apart her tightly fisted hand.

“I could have been. I could have helped,” she said, letting his hand touch hers. She couldn’t look away from the sky. She felt cold, her sweat chilled, against the night air.

“We made a deal, remember. You stay behind in case-”

“I know,” she said, her voice low, monotone. “But there’s always another way.”

Slowly, she felt the draw of his wing stretch around her back, the thick leathery hide pressed against her back, brushed against her white hair, the clawed edges brushing ever so lightly against her arm.

“And I would have done it, if there were. But I wasn’t going to fall, with him; I wasn’t going to let what little hope our world had left, fall away, to nothing.”

Maiev said, nothing.

“For the same reason I have done  _everything_  I have ever done in my life - I want to keep a future for Azeroth. For our people. My Illidari - your Wardens-”

“You did it for Tyrande,” she said, feeling the sag of Illidan’s wing rest around her shoulders. 

Illidan lifted his head to look at Argus, and closed his eyes.

She felt his fingers twine with hers. They throbbed with pain, with the trickle of blood that fell from her knuckles.

“Not anymore.”


End file.
